Posted on 06/07/2004 5:47:08 PM PDT by Wolfstar
You're right. "El Alamein" is mentioned as being an Anglo-Arab by Reagan in a letter to a young girl about her horse named "Ronnies Baby".
Ref: "Reagan: A life in letters". Page 71, letter to Miss Garret, 02 July, 1985.
I think you're probably right. His own boots will be plenty.
As for a 22" Pariani, that's a big saddle. Mine is 18" and fits well, as is my Crosby. One thing I have found, with so many women on the English side of the barn, is that they tend to select too small a saddle for men. I've seen them recommend 17" saddles for guys that are near to 6ft. and 175#. That's too small. That's why those men who grew up Western and try English go back to Western. Boys can ride 17's, men need 18's unless they're used to another size by experience or preference.
I'm not so modest, I think that being a horseman had a lot to do with Reagan's success. There is a confidence and competence that comes with being able to ride. Reagan rode well. And he rode well because he loved riding and horses. He sat a horse well. I wish W had learned to ride. His trail in the WH would be easier.
I think it was another very great man, Sir Winston Churchill, who said, "There's something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of a man."
Sir Winston was an expert polo player in his younger days, and of course was a participant in the very last combat cavalry charge of the British Army.
I think that dealing with horses is good for men, especially, because they learn tact and kindness. You cannot muscle or bully a horse and get the best out of him - you have to think one step ahead and use positive thinking and encouragement. And on the other hand, women learn that you can't be weak and give in - sometimes you have to be firm.
Good lessons for everyone all around.
Talking about lessons, I just got home after a two hour lesson on my mare, mostly dressage (shoulder-ins and half passes plus cantering circles with alternating bends) winding up with some grid jumping. We were BOTH exhausted!
Deep and grateful thank you greetings to you Wolfstar for doing so. Sunset on the beautiful Pacific ocean where our great President, Ronald Reagan will rest forever overlooking! His spirit is embodied by this photo, IMHO.
bump
Well, at one point he did have one, though-
Posted on Sun, Jun. 06, 2004
From campaigning to horseback riding, Reagan colleague recalls president's integrity, vision
BY CYNTHIA NEFF
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT) - William P. Clark was on horseback at a social gathering in late 1965 the first time he encountered Ronald Reagan.
Clark, a new member of Republican Party, was invited to the event to consider entering the race for the State Assembly. But as a young lawyer with five children, he determined that "it was too early to consider entering the political thicket."
However Reagan, a radio commentator and former actor who had not yet been approached to run for governor, mentioned to Clark that if he ever ran for office, he would want Clark to consider joining him.
"Little did I know..." Clark quipped.
Clark, 72, served as county campaign chairman the first time Reagan later ran for governor of California in 1966, and then became his chief of staff in Sacramento. He served as Reagan¹s national security advisor and Interior Department secretary after the president was elected to his first term in 1980.
"He was a gentle man," Clark said. "He reminded me of my father for his integrity and discretion, his vision and his good judgment."
On Sunday, Clark remembered the man he spent several decades working for as motivational, hard-working and a dedicated letter writer who, during his public office, penned thousands of letters in response to people he'd never met.
"Only Jefferson and Washington wrote more," Clark said.
Clark routinely reviewed letters and position papers that involved national security.
"If we felt a letter needed work or a tonal change, we put it over for the following morning...and then we'd come back to it."
The pair also rode frequently, often at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.
They couldn't ride for long periods, Clark said, because their full schedules wouldn't allow it.
But the president believed it to be important recreation - so valuable that Clark set up a school for the president's Secret Service agents so they could learn to ride and keep pace with himself and Reagan.
"He would say: `There's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse,' " Clark said.
Leaders from other countries also knew Reagan loved the animals.
Protocol required they bring a state gift to Washington on their official visits, Clark recalled.
Many wanted to give the president a horse, which created logistical problems for the staff.
"The question arose, what do you do with all these horses?" The answer? Some were retained by the United States Park Police at the Washington stables.
When the Austrians sent one of their famed Lipizzaner stallions to the White House, first lady Nancy Reagan and the secret service felt it too risky for the president to ride the high-spirited animal routinely.
So, the task fell to the new Secretary of the Interior.
"Of course, I performed this duty at great inconvenience and sacrifice," Clark said, jokingly.
"I was raised on a ranch," he added. "To be able to get on a horse in the middle of Washington at 6 a.m. each day for 30 minutes was a marvelous break. ... He (Reagan) watched this in great envy."
---
© 2004, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
His Lippizanner was named Amadeus.
Since officers these days usually don't have their own horses and so the military provids one, it would likely be unusual to ever see another color used as it is simpler to simply procure a black one and dispense with the additional covering gear of tradtion.
But in cases where the deceased did have a favorite horse, and had expressed a desire to use it, it may not always be black. Hence the hood and cape mentioned above. I've never seen it done except in old records but evidently it's permissable.
And see the above article concerning a horse Ron received from Austria. Reagan's Lippizzaner came up during a FR thread on Patton which is why I recall it; it wasn't as well known as the arab he was known to ride.
I'd want a mare rather than a stallion, I've always gotten along better with the girls. I've had the privilege of riding a Conversano Lipizzaner mare that belonged to an Austrian lady - she was marvelous, but very forward and strong, you always had the impression you were sitting on a case of dynamite.
I can imagine the Secret Service would want to veto Reagan riding anything, especially if they aren't horse people. And they'd pitch a fit over a stallion just on general principles. Ever since Henry VIII (yet another thing he's famous for), the English-speaking countries have gelded most male horses, so riding stallions is rare and many folks simply are afraid to because of the folklore that's grown up around them. But as long as you have some Vicks VapORub to put in his nose when the ladies are in season, and assuming that he doesn't have temperamental problems, stallions are generally o.k. I still prefer mares though, and they seem to prefer me.
The black horses in British funerals, at least in pre-Victorian times (Victoria forbade the use of black horses at her funeral), wore the full caparison even if they were black underneath. They also had black plumes on their heads.
I still have something like a caparison in my tack trunk. It's an open macrame-like full cover with tassels at the end where the cord is tied off. Only it's white cotton and it's now called a cooling sheet. I guess in an emergency I could dye it black . . .
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